Summary

“The Story of My Building” opens in a poor neighborhood in Gaza where a card game is taking place in one of the apartments. An argument erupts over the Zionists and ethnic cleansing, but a reading from the Babel quickly solves it. The protagonist, a ten-year old boy named Muhannad, narrates his family’s involvement in the Palestinian Liberation Organization, a family member who immigrated to the United States, and his mother who felt all the men in the family were lazy. To prove he was not lazy, he studied for his final exams for months and came in first in his class. As a reward, his family wanted to build him a container to keep pigeons on the roof. Muhannad went in search of wood and paint at the local hardware store, and was informed it would take a week for the...